Monday, December 26, 2011

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, if that's what you celebrate.
I'm taking a blog break this week to spend some time with my family, get some work done, tackle a whole bunch of projects around the house, and generally rejuvenate.

But first! I need to anounce the winner of the custom initial necklace giveawy from Mish Mash studios.

Southsloper, come on down!

You can email me directly at heather[at]heatherpetersondesign[dot]com or leave a comment here with your email and I'll put you in touch with Annie to discuss your necklace.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

This is the first year that my girls will wake up in their own house on Christmas morning.
Among other things, this means that we needed some stockings, pronto.

I didn't want to spend a lot (okay, any) money, and I don't like the cheaply made generic ones that are out there on a budget. The other day I was looking at my stacks of fabrics that were either left over from projects or never got used, and I had an idea.

Reversible stockings.

I let the girls choose one fabric, then offered them coordinating options.

The other two are still in production. I love a hard deadline, what can I say?

To make, you basically just make a pattern (I traced one from a Christmas craft book), then cut out two pairs of fabric pieces for each stocking. Sew likes together, turn inside out, stuff one stocking inside the other and seam the top. Done.

Now I just have to figure out where to put them. You may recall our fireplace looks like this:

No mantel to speak of. time to get creative!

Does your family have special stockings? I can't wait to fill ours up!

pssssst. There's still time to enter the giveaway for a custom initial necklace. Detailshere.

Leave one comment on this original post for each action above.
Winner will be chosen by random.org Christmas eve at midnight, just as Santa is setting down on roofs everywhere.

******

When it comes to the holidays (or anything else, really), do you stick with ingrained traditions? Or, as an adult, do you make your own?

My family has always been a Frasier Fir or, as back up, Balsam Fir kind of a family. When we went to Mother Earth Gardens for our Christmas tree the other day, that's what I was looking for. Instead, I was drawn to the tall, skinny, bare-branched pines--the ones that look straight out of Norway. Or A Charlie Brown Christmas. For the first time, I found myself wondering what kind of tree I liked. And I have been buying my own tree for nearly twenty years now.

My girls, too, were drawn to the softer needles of a pine, and to seal the deal, the white pines were about half the price of the firs. As it turns out, they are native to Minnesota so they grow easily and naturally here, while Frasier's chug water like a frat boy doing a keg stand, and they take a lot longer to reach maturity.

We brought home a huge, un-dyed white pine, and put it in the big window in the dining room. It is the first thing you see when you open the front door. I feel that my happiness level is raised by the presence of this tree.

It's funny: going with tradition means you never have to think about what YOU really want. Sometimes that's easier. This is the first year that my kids and I will wake up in our own house on Christmas morning, and it feels like an opportunity to create our own Christmas traditions. Such a fun opportunity to think about our family and what we want Christmas to look like. But daunting, too: creating all the magic is on us.

When I stopped by on Friday, Annie was cooking up a bunch of custom orders.

Aren't these the best?

The giveaway is for a custom initial (the letters come from vintage books and are covered in resin) on a chain with a bonus doo-dad. Could be a little gem or charm or stamped disc (my daughter Clio has a "C" with a little "love" disc. It's the best.)

Details at the end of this here post. If the straight-up stamped-metal necklaces are more to your taste, you're in luck: they're on special this week, 30% off while supplies last.

Shall we take a look see around the shop?

Seasonal decor and vintage gifts:

Local, hand made goods and art:

Vintage wallpaper!

And custom jewelry.

To enter the giveaway, just do one of the following, and for each action, leave me a separate comment here on the blog. A winner will be selected at random on Friday, December 23. That's Christmas Eve Eve to you.

Not local? Select finds are up on etsy under seller mishmashit.Just a handful right now, but Marlena tells me she's loading more for the holidays.

And one more thing for locals to look forward to: in the coming months, Mish Mash will hold assorted classes twice a week, possibly including but not limited to jewelry making, metal stamping, upcycling, chemical-free cleaning, gluten free cooking, and clothing and jewelry swaps. Classes range from free to $25. You want in.

Friday, December 16, 2011

I have to say, I don't generally love the look of curtains with a separate color band at the bottom, but this one sort of knocks my socks off.

It helps that this stunning room employs my favorite color combo, but I think this room needs that extra hit of pattern and interest, and that this band, set apart, and made from a crazy pattern, is just the thing.

Speaking of a band a part, have you seen Band a la parte? Now titled Band of Outsiders en englais. A French new wave film from Jean Luc Godard, available from Criterion. I highly recommend it.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Several years ago, my husband and I agreed to a big splurge: a set of 4 Ghost Chairs, in white, for our tiny Brooklyn dining room. In our current house, we had the space (and the need) to seat more than our little family of four, and it was more economical in terms of both space and money to buy a vintage set of eames shell chairs than to double our Ghost collection. Now one of the Ghosts is in the living room, one is at my desk (sitting in it right now), and I always figured the girls would each eventually get one as a desk chair.

But guess what? Taken away from the dining table, they are not the most comfortable things on this earth. Especially if you sit at your desk quite a lot. But funds are too low to buy a matching orange shell armchair with office base (and Modernica is out of stock anyway.)

So I was interested to spot this cushioned version on SF Girl By Bay (via House to Home.)

When I went looking for a higher res version on the House to Home website, I was surprised to find that the Brits have, apparently, embraced the cushioned Ghost chair.

Not sure. I'm probably too uptight to go for the last look--looks like down inserts without covers (though I suppose with those windows and that paneling you could get away with just about anything), but maybe the first, really tailored version?

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Sometimes when the inspiration is flagging, it's fun to play around and experiment with a space that may or may not exist. This "two ways" series is such a fun way to push myself in new directions, and this one is no exception.

Typically, we think of lanterns as a fairly traditional element. Check out the roundup, here. But a little bit of tradition can ground a modern, bohemian space. And the new lanterns coming out these days are so architectural, they're suited to a modern, sculptural interior. Check it out.

Neutral and Sculptural

Colorful and Bohemian

(Note: There would be 6 dining chairs in each room--it just looks crowded when you do that in a design board.)

I have to say, I would move right in to that second room. But working with clients with an aesthetic more modern than mine is giving me added appreciation of form and texture (as opposed to color and pattern.)

Monday, December 12, 2011

So you use events in your home as a motivator/ deadline for completing projects? For as long as I can remember, there has been no better way to accomplish projects than planning to have people over. Need to paint the living room? Schedule a game night. Time to stain the deck? How about hosting a barbeque?

We had a little tree trimming party this weekend, and it was no exception. Most of the projects were not particularly pretty. We decided to include ping pong in the festivities, which meant letting people in the basement, which meant reorganizing the storage, utility, AND project areas down there. I did manage to accomplish one little project that I can show you.

Remember my little entryway transformation? I used a hand-me down church pew, gifted poufs, and art and accessories I had on hand to create an inviting vignette in the entryway. Only problem: the pillow was really too small.

I happened to have a yard of fabric from the Iman line at Calico Corner's that I got for less than $10 (bolt-end special) and planned at one point to use in this living room. When the color palette changed just a bit over there, I kept it for myself.

I love the larger scale, the way the fabric has a sort of "grain," like the old wood, the stripe and ikat mix, and that it picks up most of the colors from my "whole-house color palette": The green from the living room, office, and master bedroom; blue from the dining chairs; raspberry from the guest and girls' rooms, and a hit of bright yellow, a color found in very small doses just about everywhere. (That yellow is also really textural, like a boucle. It's cool.)

I will say, Dave thought it was a funny project to take on when there was food to make and floors to scrub, but it made me so happy that this was the first thing guests saw when coming into our home.

So, fess up. Ever scheduled an event for the major purpose of getting something done in your house?

Thursday, December 8, 2011

My husband does not like curtains. But he concedes that sometimes window treatments are a necessity. Like in our west-facing living room, where the huge window casts a whole lot of afternoon light on our TV. The afternoon, in case you did not know this, is often when they show football games. So window treatments are a good compromise if they improve the football watching experience.

Here's the problem: Huge, modern windows.

Wood blinds came to mind, and I found the right size at Home Depot for $100. I can't even remember why these got the thumbs down.

Next up, a flat roman shade. These can be expensive, but I planned to teach myself to make them. (I'm not very good at squaring corners--on anything--so that might have been a problemo.) The bigger problem? My husband is very wary of shades because they obscure the top foot or so of the window, and he basically wants all light in or all light out. There's no middle ground on this issue.

So in a weird turn of events, my curtain-hating husband determined that curtains were the way to go.

Enter fabric paralysis. I needed at least 15 yards, so it had to be cheap. I happened to have about 18 yards of a GORGEOUS Irish linen in hot coral from some project I can't even remember, many moons ago, and I spent a lot of time with it taped up next to the window, acknowledging that it was CRAZY with the bright orange rug, but that design is about taking risks, right?

Finally, finally, it dawned on me. The opposite.

White.

White curtains!! I never even think of such things because it seems too "boring." But my mother solved the same problem--a wall of modern windows--with the same solution: floor to ceiling linen drapes in the same color as the wall. And I love the way they disappear, but soften the room at the same time.

Just the right white linen can be expensive. And most retail curtains do not come long enough--I needed 102". But then I noticed on Bryn's blog that certain Ikea curtains come in a much longer lenth--112" or 118", I think.

And so I decided to do it the easy way. Well, kind of.

I bought two sets of curtains at Ikea--the same ones Bryn used in her parent's room, which are cotton with a linen-look, and some actual linen ones, which were shorter, but I thought I could add a panel of a color at the bottom. (See, I resist the easy way.) When I got home a couple of hours later and unloaded the car, there were no curtains. I bought 4 pairs of curtains and came home with none.

So my family "got" to have dinner at Ikea while I straightened things out. The return trip convinced me to just get the curtains that were long enough and not mess with the panel. See? I'm learning to go for the easy way.

Now I just need to sew the panels together, hem them, and pinch pleat.

And my total cost for the panels is $75. That's about $5/yard, and I don't have to put in the side seams. Score!

About Me

Hi there.
I am a Minneapolis-based decorator and mother to two excellent girls. Though I work full time in this industry, I'm still a pretty big fangirl of all things interiors. Frankly, my family and friends can only take so much, so this is where I get into the nitty gritty to an unreasonable degree. Luckily the like-minded abound on the internet. I'm so glad you found me.